Thursday, December 15, 2005

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

I believe, like my parents told me, that Santa Claus represents a "spirit of giving" that gives us an instinct and an intuition towards just the right gift, and helps us find some form of that within our budgets.

Both presents I mentioned below were ones I recieved during economically lean years, but for whatever reason they were able to tap into my kinderhood sense of wonder and possibility & I never realized until years later that we were actually fairly poor for years at a time.

As for what to tell the kids, that works for me. Kids (if I ever have 'em) seem to pick whatever level of mythology that works for them. Give them the facts (or a phenomenalogical facimile thereof) and they'll make themselves comfortable.

I really shouldn't be answering this question while drunk. Oh well. If I can make it past the 'Word Verification' I'll let it stand.

I had an interesting time trying to tell a 4 year old about how Santa knows if you've been bad or good. The little boy, who can be a troublemaker, said, "how does Santa know? He's at the North Pole!" he was always looking for loopholes to see when he can be a naughty boy, and get away with it.

As for the original question: though I once thought like Nora does, now that I have kids, I have learned that the childmind is not the adultmind. For a three-year-old, salamanders are indeed as real as santa -- and so are light, bubbles, the idea of the truth, and other esoterica.